Our Current Travels

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Hey, where'd we go ?

Since Mesa Verde, we have been busy and in areas that haven't had great internet service. And uploading photos is hard unless you gotta da speed. We are currently able to use the park wifi and if you go towards the Clubhouse it is pretty fast.
In our travels we have been able to knock off a couple of items from my list of wanna sees before I go.

Monument Valley and the classic picture heading into the valley from the North, on HWY 191. Finally, did it! It was awesome and well worth the trip. It took a bit of a wait to get the shot without other cars in it. Karla was not enjoying her time while I was standing in the middle of the road but I assured her, "it was ok". Yea right! While there we visited a Museum in Goulding's Lodge. It is full of movie memorabilia from all the movies that have been shot in the area. My personal favorite actor from the old westerns.....John Wayne. He filmed a few movies here and his cabin has been retired so you can go see what it was like back in the day.

From Monument Valley we visited Moab UT. Lots to do there. We had a wonderful day kayaking on the Colorado River.
The river was mostly flat but one spot had a little bit of white water and I went right into the middle of it. I was taking on water over the bow, filling up fast and then I was out of it. I was able to paddle to shore to dump the water out. I was concerned about Karla but once I looked back and noticed she took the better route through and was just fine, floating down happily with no issues. I should of followed her.
Arches National Park was a 15 minute drive from our park outside Moab and we were able to visit the park a couple of times. Also in the area is Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park. They were a bit of a drive but quite a place to see. Remember the film Thelma and Louise? The final scene where she drives over the cliff? Just inside Canyonlands Nat'l Park. We made it to the State park and it would have been another 45 minutes to get to the cliff where the drive off was and it was late, next time in the area we will make it.


We left Moab and headed to the southwest corner of Utah to a park outside St George. We came for a week and we got stuck here. I heard they needed some help for the month of Nov so I applied. I work 2 afternoon shifts as the night host. (4:30 to 9:30) And two days building small rock retaining walls between the sites to level them out a bit. It's a job but not bad for 20 hrs a week. The weather is good and there is plenty to do in the area. The park managers plan outings, dinners and music shows, it's different than any park we have been in and kind of fun.
Since we have been here, Karla has done a lot of research on "in the park" recycling for the park managers. The plan is for the park to have recycling containers on site and for the use of the guests. Way to go Karla!



These last 4 photos are from Zion. There is a mile walk along the Virgin River that ends when the river banks disappear into the shear wall cliffs of the sandstone mountain. It is called "The Narrows" and if you want to continue the hike you have to get into the water and go. The water is cold and deep in places and it's Nov for goodness sake. Maybe next year/ next trip/next summer.
As always, double click a picture for the larger version.

3 comments:

  1. Your pictures are gorgeous. We haven't "done" Utah yet and I am so looking forward to it. The last time we were there, there was a snowstorm going on that pretty well curtailed our sightseeing.

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  2. Love your photos. We had planned Utah but our plans are rarely followed. We still want to do it.

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  3. Absolutely incredible photos you guys! I hope that we can do Utah sometime but you know....winter!

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